Suzaku blinked in confusion as he came to outside a truck, with a familiar limette (Is that even a word?Suzaku thinks wildly) in bondage gear, which said more than he needed to know about her captors, and his Emperor and best friend Lelouch.
"Private Kururugi, take this and execute the terrorist" ordered the Captain of Clovis' royal guard. Blinking a couple of times, Suzaku realised he was 11 years in the past. And in Shinjuku, where everything promptly went to hell for him and the world.
Taking a deep breath, Suzaku took the pistol from the captain. And made his decision.
In the moment between breaths, there is nothing.
There is no firefight, no enemy battalion. No squadmate pinned behind cover, no hostage on their knees.
There are no shadow nations, spreading their influence and subverting boundaries like a cancer.
No special deployment, no coalition of nations and no decision to fight back.
In the moment between breaths, there is nothing.
No hesitation.
No doubt.
No noise.
Pierce the darkness.
"Take the shot" Suzaku whispered the mantra of his personal team's sniper, as he brought up the pistol and fired once, causing the captain's head to jerk back. Snatching up the spare magazine and taking a knee, Suzaku took advantage of their shock as he methodically started 'slotting' the members of the royal guard. As the slide pulled back on an empty mag, Suzaku tucked and rolled, bringing himself flat on the ground as he reloaded. The remaining five tried to shoot him, but he double tapped them in the head.
"Breathe out"
Total engagement time, 6 seconds.
"Su.. Suzaku...?" came a stunned voice from behind him.
Suzaku ignored Lelouch and CC while checking the corpses, ensuring that they were all dead.
Before he could respond to his friend's repeated call, the truck blew up.
Oh yeah, forgot about that.
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"Having a bad day are we?" came anoh sofamiliar, yet condescending voice. Suzaku restrained the smirk he felt as he woke up again in an ambulance. To his surprise, Cecilé was pointing a pistol at him.
"I've had worse Doctor" Suzaku replied as he adjusted himself to a seated position, meeting Lloyd Asplund, the Earl of Pudding, gaze evenly. Lloyd gave him one of his piercing glances, which just confirmed Suzaku's suspicions about the man's perceptiveness.
"Well, I guess you would have, considering this seems to be your second go around" he mentioned in an off-hand tone. On seeing Suzaku's surprise, he said "I did major in mechatronics engineering but I did a short course on basic psychology. I needed the credits!" he said defensively, crossing his arms around himself. Suzaku felt a corner of his mouth twitch up at familiar behaviour.
"And the gun?" he asked, causing Cecilé to tighten her grip on the pistol, to which Lloyd responded with a raised eyebrow.
"What, no claims of ignorance? No deflections? Nothing?" he said, slightly surprised. Cecilé decided to interject then.
"Sir, we should hand him over to the MPs" she said, her voice holding a quiver of uncertainty. Suzaku sighed then in four quick motions, stepped inside her guard, disarmed her, had her arm twisted into a half Nelson and had the gun pointed at Lloyd. He then leaned towards her and whispered, ignoring the tremor running through her, "If I really wanted to kill two of the only people who have stood with me through thick and thin,my family, I would have done it already. But I don't. And I won't" so concluded, he switched the pistol to safe, thumbed the hammer down and flipped it over to hand it to Lloyd, grip first, simultaneously releasing Cecilé.
Lloyd blinked in surprise, then a warm smile spread across his face as he took the pistol from Suzaku. He then pulled out a familiar, golden Knightmare activation key.
"I'm sure you recognise this, don't you?" Suzaku's answering grin was all the answer he needed.
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Kōzuki Kallen was having a rotten day. And that was something considering the kind of shitty life that she has had till date.
Firstly, their escape had been compromised from the start, resulting in Nagata dying. Secondly, she had lost one arm of her Glasgow Knightmare Frame while being doggedly chased by some Purist bastard in a Sutherland.
A bit of luck came in the form of a mystery voice on the radio, and a train load of Sutherland KMFs, seemed to have turned the battle to their benefit. It also helped that Mr. Mystery Voice seemed to be a far better commander than Clovis. They managed to disable and kill a major portion of the Purist KMFs.
And that's when things went promptly to Hell.
"What the hell..."came a strangled yell over the radio.
"Oh shi..."came another voice.
"Someone stop that monster!"A cold chuckle sounded over unsecured channels, causing ice to coat her spine.
"Monster? I'm the Shinigami" said the same voice, icy cold amusement lacing his words. And then she saw it.
It was a KMF in white and gold, sleek and angular. And the way whoever it was piloting it had been handling it, she knew that she was dealing with someone out of her league.
"So you're their ace? Let's see how good you are"this statement caused more ice to form, to which Kallen reacted in a predictable manner.
"HIYAAH!" she screamed as she charged at the unknown ace, who sighed.
A blur of white, gold and leaf green later, and the next thing Kallen knew was that she was ejected from her frame, her last image before she lost visual feeds was her dismembered Glasgow laying on the ground, with the opponent Knightmare waving at her cheekily.
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Cecilé Croomy honestly wondered sometimes if her boss was requiring psychiatric intervention considering his recent behaviour.
I mean really? An Eleven who was holding a pistol, which he most certainly had used to kill the Viceroy Prince Clovis' Royal Guard with absolute efficiency, who claimed to havetime travelledof all things and then disarms and subdues her ( And doesn't that one smart on her pride), then has the audacity to claim the most outrageous things. And Lloyd, the completely imbecilic naive fool not only believed that tripe, but handed him the keys to one of the world's most advanced Knightmare Frames in existence.
Unfortunately, all of Cecilé's objections were overridden when Private Kururugi showed an astonishingly high synchronisation of 110%.
And then he was launched.
Cecilé was left dumbfounded when Private Kururugi made the Lancelotdance. No, dance was toopedestriana word to describe what he was doing.
It was as if the Lancelot had come alive, the sheer smoothness of his movements made it seem like the pilot and the machine were one.
She then noticed something odd. All the enemy knightmares were disabled, with all their pilots safely ejected. A small chuckle broke her focus from her screen to the man sitting next to her.
"Welcome back, Knight ofZero" murmured Earl Asplund, as he watched Private Kururugi make mincemeat of the insurgent knightmares. He then shot her a glance from the corner of his eyes and said in a voice that demanded obedience, causing Cecilé to automatically straighten up into attention.
"Major Croomy, Private Kururugi is to now be inducted into ASEECs ranks. All actions taken will be covered under the confidentiality agreements taken on behalf of ASEEC. Are we clear?"
As Cecilé stammered out an affirmative, Prince Clovis announced a ceasefire.
[GRYFX_
Charlotte Caflisch, better known as CC was having a bad day.
Which was saying something, considering the fact that she had been alive since the 9th century A.D., and had had her share of bad days.
But after 5 years of methodical and inhuman experimentation on her person by her colleagues and compatriots, being freed in the middle of a warzone, then forming a contract with Marianne's little boy (And look at him, all grown up and a heartbreaker in his own right) should have just been a walk in the park. Then being carted around by Lelouch in the back of a Knightmare as he liasoned with the insurgents, then getting inside the G1 and assassinating Clovis after he recalled his forces from Shinjuku, should barely have registered on her radar.
In all honesty, this did not even feature in the top 100 weirdest things that had happened to her.
What bothered her was Lelouch's friend, the quisling Kururugi. Noble intentions or not, once a traitor, always a traitor.
She should know. After all, she had suffered betrayals heaped on betrayals.
Initially though, Kururugi's eyes were wide eyed, innocent and oh sonaivë. But, when the Captain of the Royal Guard handed him the pistol, something else,someone elsehad taken over. A spark of recognition with shades of love, concern, self hatred and anger had flashed across his eyes as he had glanced at them before he turned and took the pistol from the Captain.
And then he slaughtered the Royal Guard.
Honestly, she was surprised by his actions.
A truck bomb had promptly closed that line of enquiry.
Afterwards, sequestered in Lelouch's room in Ashford Academy, she pondered the mystery of Suzaku Kururugi, her thoughts were interrupted when someone knocked on his door.
"Master Lelouch, there is someone here to meet you" said the maid, Shinozaki, if she remembered her name correctly. Lelouch frowned in confusion as he exited his room. He then made a sound like a strangled cat.
Curious, she poked her head around the corner to see what the fuss was about and just managed to keep in a squeak of shock as she was confronted by two of the most prominent members of the Purist Faction.
Margrave Jeremiah Gottwald and Major Villeta Nu.
And then things to a turn for theinteresting.
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